This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application entitled AUDIO APPARATUS WITH REDUCING WHITE NOISE AND CONTROL METHOD OF THE SAME earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on the 28th day of September 1998, and there duly assigned Ser. No. 98-40365, a copy of which is annexed hereto.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an audio apparatus, and more particularly to an audio apparatus such as a sound card mounted in a computer system and a method of the same.
2. Related Art
Computer systems are information handling systems that are utilized by many individuals and businesses today. A computer system can be defined as a microcomputer that includes a central processing unit (CPU), a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory such as read only memory (ROM), a display monitor, a keyboard, a mouse or other input device such as a trackball, a floppy diskette drive, a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM) drive, a modem, a hard disk storage device, and a printer. A computer system""s main board, which is a printed circuit board known as a motherboard, is used to electrically connect these components together. A computer system can be a desktop computer, a personal computer, a portable computer such as a notebook computer or palm-sized computer, or other type of computer.
The semiconductor technology has been rapidly advanced over the last decade. This allows much data of a semiconductor device such as a central processing unit (CPU) mounted in a computer system to be processed at high speed. As capabilities of computer systems have been improved, application programs installed in the computer systems also have been developed.
Furthermore, developing capabilities of computer systems enable audio and video data comprising relatively large amounts of data to be processed at high speeds. Some computer systems incorporate microphones inputting audio data and speakers outputting audio data.
I have found that audio-related features can be modified to improve the quality thereof. Efforts have been made to improve audio-related features.
Exemplars of recent efforts in the art include U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,622 for AUTOMATIC NOISE COMPENSATION SYSTEM FOR AUDIO REPRODUCTION EQUIPMENT issued to Dougherty, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,057 for CIRCUIT FOR REDUCING AUDIO AMPLIFIER NOISE DURING POWERING ON AND OFF issued to Lada, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,450 for SPEECH CIRCUIT CONTROLLING SIDETONE SIGNAL BY BACKGROUND NOISE LEVEL issued to Watanabe, U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,457 for CIRCUIT FOR SUPPRESSING WHITE NOISE IN RECEIVED VOICE issued to Ehara et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,095 for IMPULSE NOISE REDUCTION BY LINEAR INTERPOLATION HAVING IMMUNITY TO WHITE NOISE issued to Ishigaki et al.
While these recent efforts provide advantages, I note that they fail to adequately provide an improved audio apparatus for reducing white noise and control method of the same.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an audio apparatus for reducing white noise.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method controlling the aforementioned audio apparatus reducing white noise.
According to a feature of the present invention, an audio apparatus mounted on a computer system comprises a microphone connection means, an audio chipset including an interface for data input/output with the computer system, an audio function circuit, a mixer for mixing a plurality of audio signals, and a general purpose input/output (GPIO), and a microphone detection means inputting a detection signal to an input terminal of the general purpose input/output. Here, the detection means is accordance with a state that a microphone is connected to the microphone connection means.
In the preferred embodiment, the microphone detection means comprises a first resistance whose one edge is connected to the microphone connection means, a transistor whose base is connected to the other edge of the first resistance and one edge of a current path is connected to power supply voltage VDD, and a second resistance connected between the other edge of the current path and ground voltage Vss.
According to another feature of the present invention, a computer system with an audio apparatus comprises a microphone connection means, an audio chipset including an interface for data input/output with the computer system, an audio function circuit, a mixer for mixing a plurality of audio signals, and a general purpose input/output (GPIO), a microphone detection means inputting a detection signal to an input terminal of the general purpose input/output, the detection means according to a state that a microphone is connected to the microphone connection means, and a means exerting microphone mute function of the mixer, if a microphone is connected to the microphone connection means when determining a voltage level of an input terminal of the general purpose input/output where a detection signal supplied from the microphone detection means is inputted.
According to further feature of the present invention, a method for controlling an audio apparatus mounted on a computer system comprises the steps of: determinating whether a microphone connection detector detects a microphone being connected to the audio apparatus; enabling microphone volume control function, if the microphone is connected to the audio apparatus; and enabling microphone mute function of a mixer mounted in on the audio apparatus, if the microphone is not connected to the audio apparatus.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising: a terminal being removably coupled to a microphone; a detector detecting when the microphone is coupled to said terminal and outputting a detection signal in accordance with said detecting; a mixing unit receiving first audio data through said terminal and outputting second audio data; and a control unit controlling said mixing unit in accordance with said detection signal, muting the first audio data when the microphone is not coupled to said terminal, not muting the first audio data when the microphone is coupled to said terminal.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising: a terminal being removably coupled to a microphone; a detector detecting when the microphone is coupled to said terminal; and a mixing unit receiving first audio data through said terminal and outputting second audio data, said mixing unit muting the first audio data when said detector detects that the microphone is not coupled to said terminal, said mixing unit not muting the first audio data when said detector detects that the microphone is coupled to said terminal.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an audio apparatus mounted on a computer system, comprising: a connector removably coupling a microphone to a terminal; a detector detecting when the microphone is coupled to said connector and outputting a detection signal in accordance with said detecting; a mixing unit receiving first audio data through the terminal and outputting second audio data; and a control unit controlling said mixing unit in accordance with said detection signal, said control unit preventing the first audio data from being included with the second audio data when said detection signal indicates that the microphone is not coupled to said connector, said control unit not preventing the first audio data from being included with said second audio data when said detection signal indicates that the microphone is coupled to said connector.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides a method, comprising: detecting when a microphone is coupled to an audio apparatus; when the microphone is detected as being coupled to the audio apparatus, enabling a microphone volume control function to include first audio data with output audio data output from the audio apparatus; and when the microphone is not detected as being coupled to the audio apparatus, enabling a microphone mute function to exclude the first audio data from the output audio data.
The present invention is more specifically described in the following paragraphs by reference to the drawings attached only by way of example. Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.